During the festival, Dartsya Tarkovska and Olga Bekenshtein will be part of the British Council’s international delegation of 15 music industry representatives from Asia, Europe and South America.  

TGE showcases the best in the UK’s and international underground music scene inside the city’s music venues, theatres, pubs, bars, and street corners. TGE Conference runs alongside the gigs featuring insightful panels, topical debates, keynote speakers, and networking opportunities in abundance. Each year, it is attended by 3500 music industry professionals. 

Dartsya Tarkovska is a co-founder of the independent initiative Music Export Ukraine. After working in the music industry for over a decade, she takes care of the sustainable development of Ukrainian music in an international context. Since 2018, she provides management support for Ukrainian artists at showcase festivals, coordinates exchange programmes and music conferences, initiates international collaboration projects, cooperates with state cultural institutions of Ukraine, etc. A graduate of International Music Marketing course at Berklee College of Music. The author of educational projects on music management and marketing.  

Olga Bekenshtein is a music curator, arts administrator and DJ from Luhansk/Kyiv, Ukraine. She has been the founder of Am I Jazz? festival, a co-founder of the non-profit organization OK Projects, and part of the team that runs the club/art centre Closer in Kyiv with its electronic music festivals Strichka and Brave! Factory, the largest and most internationally recognized in Ukraine. Her curatorial approach centres on cross-sectoral, multi-genre contemporary music programming; presenting vanguard artistic projects and commissioning experimental collaborations. As a Fulbright scholar, she earned an MA in Arts Administration from the University of New Orleans in 2020. In her theoretical research, she focuses on decolonization, politically aware performance, and ethics in the music industry. 

More about the TGE Conference.